moon and phase

I am so much in love with OxiClean that I simply must share. It's like an altar call for laundry products, hallelujah. ;-)

OxiClean has now rescued two doll outfits for me: a Sasha Pintucks dress and panties earlier this spring and, just this evening, a white Softly She Walks outfit that came to me (secondhand) with undisclosed stains on the skirt and an overall dingy haze that took most of the fun out of buying it. (Also cat hairs.) The SSW set came clean with only ten minutes of soaking. The Pintucks set was downright filthy: there were big tan blotches of God-knows-what on the dress, and under the stains both pieces were yellow with grime and age. It took about four hours and several changes of solution to turn the Pintucks outfit white again, but white it is.

Is anyone knowledgeable about chemistry, and able to explain in words of one syllable how this stuff works? Or do I not want to know?

Deary me, isn't she a stunner? Look at those eyebrows! I don't think I've ever seen such individual ones on a Sasha, but I haven't seen nearly as many early ones as I would like to. (It's like birdwatching. ;-)

What's the Sasha market like in the UK? Sasha auction prices on US eBay are so unpredictable--there seem to be a lot of buyers and sellers who don't know much about the dolls,* and that's doing bizarre things to market value.

*as witness the potential bidder who asked--on an auction for a 1965 brunette with to-die-for eyes and virtually perfect bubblegum lips--how difficult it would be to have the face "restored." Luckily, a good Sasha collector stepped in and asked a corrective question that included some education about Sasha face painting. GAH.

UK is kinda funny. I have had a couple good buyers from there that know their stuff, and a couple funky ones.

Interesting doll at that auction, definitely looks Goetz, but also looks like someone colored in her nostrils. But the hair makes me wonder, looks pretty good for a brunette that old...

Yeah the early Trendon and Goetz dolls definitely had more indivdualistic features painted on them.

That's good about the OxiClean. I've used denture tablets on older doll whites with great success. And the material for the Pintucks outfit is not good, I have one that has been stored and it's yellowed. And the doll's elastic is loose. It's funny, because I have Velvet too, and I took her out the other day and she is like brand spanking new, amazingly tight. Really odd how one doll changed so much and the other didn't, even though they were made a year apart and stored in the same conditions.

Pintucks is such a strange case all around--the one I got, besides being dirty, had to be restrung, too, and then there's the phenomenon of the oxidizing eyes. Mine's have turned a lovely teal. o.O But Pintucks is a lovely doll, so I can forgive her for being high maintenance . . .

Sodium Bicarbonate is basic enough that it shouldn't harm your clothing but I'd make sure you don't leave it soaking too long. The concern is that it could eventually eat through the clothing. Since the after-product is hydrogen peroxide it CAN have a bleaching effect on certain fabrics. Its much less harsh than conventional bleach, but make sure you test the fabric before you use the oxiclean too religiously.

Beyond that, I'd say you are good to go! Its safe (since its highly basic, it won't do much more than make your hands feel a bit clean and maybe funky). Make sure however you rinse everything several times. I'm concerned about that hydrogen peroxide production... BUT since I don't have hard numbers I'm sure its not a high concentration thats produced, especially when watered down (more than likely fairly inconsequential) but definitely wash it well. :3

Oh, hey, thank you!! That confirms exactly what I was thinking, after my initial Pintucks experiment. That outfit was a dead loss in its original state anyway, so I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it several soakings with thorough rinsing in between and afterward. The fabric didn't suffer at all. I keep checking it, expecting some kind of delayed-action deterioration, but after five months, nada. I think I'm in the clear.

I can't imagine using OxiClean over and over on the same piece of fabric. But as a one-time treatment for dingy doll clothes that I wouldn't dream of putting in the washing machine with bleach . . . yup, I'm sold on it.

I did, thanks for asking, my hubby and I are close to where it hit (about 2-3 miles tops) but the area we are in didn't get hit at all. We drive by it on the way to work every morning tho :/ I've got pics on my LJ of the damage as well. Were you guys involved in any of that at all? I know there was quite a string of weather there for awhile.

We missed most of that storm, and the one that flattened Chapman, too--the tornado sirens went off, but the worst damage in Emporia was an industrial dumpster that got picked up and thrown about half a block, and one tree snapped in two near the same place. *whew*

Chapman... I'm afraid to go by Chapman. My uncle is buried there so I think some of the family was going to make sure the gravesite made it in tact. I think my aunt checked on her way down to my cousin's wedding... but... the pictures from chapman are horrible. Here... Manhattan is still here there's just this odd line through the middle leading to the university. Most of it is picked up now... but yeah... there's still evidence (no waters true value) that sort.

I think the effort to pick up is going well though. They seem to have a LOT of volunteers considering how quickly its all disapearing. I want to help but... work is keeping me a bit busy. *hughug* Glad you guys made out alright!

I'm madly in love with it now, after these two successes--I checked the SSW outfit just now when I got up, and it's dried to a beautiful like-new white. Wooooohoooo! I've always shied away from buying white doll clothes secondhand, because I hated getting things that looked dirty (they'll look dirty enough after I play with them for a while, heh). But now there's a way to perk them up, wheee!

All my adult years I've been in search of whiter whites. I begged my paternal grandmother to show me how she did it (she was the Queen of Whites), but she only showed me a box of bleach, and in Lisa World, that simply doesn't cut it. I rail against a society that judges my domestic success by the brightness of my whites (when I think everyone should judge my success based on the fact I haven't killed anyone ... yet ... with botulism), but I nevertheless struggle to meet the expectation. Now, not only do I have to worry about my whites, I also have to worry about my dollies' whites. And I do worry. Because a dolly's dingy whites are just as socially deplorable.

Fortunately, there's you. And I bless you for this. I am serious (in case you were feeling skeptical). Powdered form or liquid? Follow the directions or overdose like mad?

I think I read on DoA ... or maybe it was ashbet told me ... that a sinkful of water and lots of Oxiclean helps remove the dingy buildup on resin and even un-yellowises mellowed French resin. Use the powdered form. Except don't put the head in if you're not in the market for a new faceup, because it also zaps the MSC and paint.

Oh, I gave up on my own laundry a looooooong time ago. But there's something awfully satisfying in seeing the dolly whites come out to 1950s standards, yes.

I use the powdered OxiClean, and go with the package directions (2-4 scoops per gallon of water)--usually, I'll stick with the middle ground and put 3 scoops in my biggest Pyrex mixing bowl, then fill it with hot water from the tap.

And I remember reading that DoA report on brightening resin, too! *inspecting the crew, with OxiClean at the ready*